Frankie (Through Time 4)

o need it. No doubt the Blue Demons would be waiting for her.

The Demons didn’t fight the portal, but allowed its wind force to carry them through, though she didn’t think it was much more pleasant for them than it was for her.

She had been hoping to shift home, but try as she did, the portal would not, could not let her go. Apparently its directive was to take whatever entered and spit it out at the other end.

A portal has but one mouth open at a time. Its mouth now on earth was closed, but the mouth where she was going would open and she was sure, she would be thrust out before the portal closed completely.

She imagined all the Blue Demons on the other side, wherever that was and sighed. In her weakened condition, this was so not good, as her Jazz would say.

If she could just stop it from dragging her. If she could just get a moment and shift home. But try as she did, her attempts to shift out of the membraned dark hole were unsuccessful. The portal seemed to prohibit her from using her shifting powers.

She told herself that she had to keep it together. What she needed to do now, she decided, was be ready for the landing.

She had perhaps another couple of seconds before it would shove her out and into their waiting arms.

Ha! Well, if they thought they were going to capture her without a fight, they were oh so wrong. When everything looks hopeless, Jazz had once told her, and you think there is no way you can win, go for broke.

Frankie stoked herself, bracing for the moment when she would fall into another world, and would have to face a platoon of Blue Demons all around her. She was sure they would be armed and ready. She was sure they would want her dead.

If she hit ground zero right in their midst, she had to be ready to shift out of their range, a difficult thing, as she didn’t know the terrain, and wouldn’t know where to shift to. Aye, she almost smiled in spite of her predicament. She was a Sluagh, which meant she had wings. There was always sky.

* * *

Jazz marched right up to Prince Worley and shoved him hard. He fell a few feet back and steadied himself. She had not regained her full strength but there was something she could do and she did. She was on him, and kicked him hard right in the balls!

He bent over with a loud shout of pain and she said, “You traitor. You pig. You pushed Frankie into the portal!”

“I didn’t. It was an accident.”

Trevor was behind Worley and had his arms pinned at his back. He said, “Lie and I’ll break these for you, over and over again.”

“Don’t think of shifting,” Jazz added, “Because if you do, Trevor we shift with you, and I know m’mate will then break your legs as well as your arms.” She shrugged, “Me? I think I’ll just kick you in the balls again…” she lifted her foot.

He screamed, “Wait!”

Deimne was on him and while Trevor had him pinned, “Deimne took his dagger and hissed, “This won’t kill you Worley, but it will make you bleed and I won’t let you heal…and if that doesn’t work…” he moved off and looked at Jazz, “I won’t be as kind as she was. I won’t bother just kicking you in the balls. I will cut them off and feed them to you, watch you choke on them…or you can tell us where you shoved my daughter to.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know. If you harm me, you will have to answer to Queen Mab,” he told Deimne.

“What I just said I want to do is what Queen Mab just may do anyway. She knows what you have been doing with your little band of Daoine citizens,” Deimne snapped. “Now, where is my daughter?”

“Conglam,” Worley said.

“You lie. Conglam is warded against a Fae entering,” Trevor said.

“No, he is telling the truth,” Jazz stuck in. “If they are working with Pestale and we have to believe that they are, then they have gone to Conglam.”

“Where we can’t follow,” Deimne said with sudden fear clipping the words.

Deimne said, “Let’s take him to Queen Mab, and see if there is a way we can enter Conglam.”

However, before they shifted off, Jazz called, “Wait!”

Trevor frowned and followed the line of her vision and frowned some more.

“Graely,” Jazz called excitedly. “Graely, I am so glad you have come!”

Chapter Fourteen